This Can't Be Happening! : Resisting the Disintegration of American Democracy

by Lindorff, David

• ISBN13: 9781567512984
• ISBN10: 1567512984
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-09-15
• Publisher: Common Courage Pr

Summary

"Guys like Lindorff can cloak their madness in political rhetoric, but that doesn't change what it is-madness." -James Taranto, Wall Street Journal "A full-bore attack on Bush-as-warmonger."-Alexander Cockburn How many of us look at the paper in the morning and say, "This can't be happening"? An iconic edifice is destroyed, swarthy aliens are blamed and a nation's leader puts a frightened public on a war footing. Bush-or Hitler? In this scathing collection of articles, Dave Lindorff suggests some of the uncomfortable parallels between the '30s and today. Award-winning investigative journalist Dave Lindorff is a columnist for Counterpunch, and author of Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Penalty Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Alexander Cockburn (Introduction) is a columnist for The Nation.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Lighting Bonfires	xi
Alexander Cockburn
Introduction Shock and Awe at the Breakfast Table	1	(273)
Mission Accomplished
Liberating Iraqis...From Their Homes: IOUs for Looting	14	(2)
And a Big Hand for...The Coalition of the Willing	16	(2)
War and Peace in New York: Against the War at Ground Zero	18	(3)
Bombing Saddam into Glory: A Hero Made in Washington	21	(2)
America's Dirty Bombs: These WMDs are Right in Front of Their Noses	23	(6)
Secret Bechtel Documents Reveal: Yes, It Is About Oil	29	(7)
The Iraq Moneypot	36	(3)
Consider the Parallels with Vietnam: An Iraq War and Occupation Glossary	39	(4)
Legitimizing Terrorism? Making America Safer...for Iraqi Fighters	43	(2)
Rumsfeld v. Belgium: ``Leave Us Alone or We'll Move NATO	45	(2)
Takoma Goes AWOL: The Dolphin Who Refused to Fight	47	(1)
Paying For War: $2150 Per Family and Counting	48	(3)
Occupation: Lost in the Bush
Calling All Occupiers: Talking Turkey About Iraq	51	(2)
Shooting Ali in the Back: Why the Pacification is Doomed	53	(2)
From Occupation to Guerrilla War: A New Kind of Dancing in Iraq	55	(3)
The Longer it Goes On, the Worse It Gets: Friendly Fire Will Doom the Occupation	58	(2)
Hiding the Dead Babies: Infanticide as Liberation	60	(2)
A Marine in Transit: ``Spray and Pray'' in Iraq	62	(2)
Dumb and Dumber in Iraq: Human Trophies on the White House Wall	64	(1)
Now What? The Saddam Dilemma	65	(2)
Recalling LBJ in Vietnam: Bush's Baghdad Pit Stop	67	(3)
Good Morning Vietnam! A Strategic Rhetorical Retreat	70	(3)
The Bush Speech: Spinning a Fiasco	73	(2)
A Draft in the Forecast? The Pentagon Puts Out the Help Wanted Sign	75	(3)
Bush's War on Veterans: The White House Attack on the Troops	78	(2)
Misers of War: Troop Strength and Chintzy Bonuses	80	(2)
Weapons in Search of a Name: Let's Reserve WMD for the Really Big Ones. You Know, Those Made-in-America Bombs	82	(4)
Coronado in Iraq: Laughter in the Dark	86	(2)
Will He Replace Ari? The Catch and Release of ``Comical Ali''	88	(1)
The New Bush Slogan: ``Case Closed. Just Move On''	89	(2)
The Poll of the Shirt: Bush Isn't Wearing Well	91	(3)
Bush's Torturous Logic: Shocked, Shocked, Shocked	94	(2)
My Grandfather's Medal: A Final Memorial Day Thought	96	(7)
Bush and Hitler: Gleich oder Anlich?
Bush and Hitler: The Strategy of Fear	103	(4)
Bush and Hitler...Compare and Contrast: A Response to the WSJ's James Taranto	107	(3)
The Bush Election Strategy: The Politics of Fear and Blood	110	(3)
RNC Plays the Hitler Card: MoveOn Shouldn't Apologize for Those Ads	113	(2)
Scare Tactics and Elections: A Spanish Parallel	115	(6)
The Assault on Civil Liberties
When Neighbors Attack	121	(5)
Grounded	126	(6)
Snoops' Night Out: FEMA's Paranoid Communities	132	(3)
Keeping Dissent Invisible: How the Secret Service and the White House Keep Protesters Safely Out of Bush's Sight---and off TV	135	(7)
Reaping What Has Been Sown: Prisoners, Torture and Hypocrisy	142	(3)
About Those Kids in Camp X-Ray: Day Care in the Name of National Security	145	(1)
What's Next: You Call This Security?	146	(3)
Expanding Power, Gutting Liberty: The Meaning of September 11	149	(3)
Ashcroft Rebuked: Lynn Stewart's Big Win	152	(2)
Fighting the Patriot Act: Alaska Turns a Cold Shoulder	154	(3)
John Walker Lindh, Revisited: A First Glimpse at Bush's Torture Show	157	(3)
That Terrorism Report: The Warning the State Department Sent Its Own People, But Not You	160	(5)
The Inbedded Media
The Failure of American Journalism: War, Protest and the Press	165	(4)
Killing the Messengers: Deliberate or Accident, It Doesn't Really Matter	169	(2)
Ari ``the Fabulist'' Fleischer Quits the Scene: The Liar's Gone, the Enablers Remain	171	(3)
WMD Damage Control at The New York Times: Many Presidents Have Lied, But This Time the Press Went Along for the Ride	174	(3)
The Importance of Tipping: Is the Media Finally Turning on Bush?	177	(3)
War Dispatch from the NYT: God's On Our Side	180	(2)
The Spinelessness of U.S. Journalism: No Solidarity Among the Scribes	182	(2)
The Press and Fallujah: Barbaric Relativism	184	(3)
Imagination Deficit Disorder: Finally, Bush Unites...the Resistance	187	(3)
Chalabi as Prosecutor: An Appointment to Shock and Awe	190	(3)
This Couldn't Have Been Happening! (But It Was): The Times' Okrent on the Credulous Judy Miller	193	(4)
The So-Called Opposition
Clinton, Bush and Impeachment: It was the Lying, Right?	197	(3)
The Democrats in 2004: Perfect Storm or Same Old Doldrums?	200	(2)
Facing the Music: Courage and the Democrats	202	(4)
General Hysteria: The Clark Bandwagon	206	(2)
A Black Day for Democracy: Schwarzenegger and the Failure of the Dems	208	(3)
Take a Ride in God's Humvee: A General Theory of Theology	211	(2)
Big Lies and Little Lies: The Meaning of ``Mission Accomplished''	213	(2)
Bush's Brand of Leadership: Putting Himself First	215	(3)
Al Gore's Judas Kiss: Dean Joins the Party	218	(2)
Histrionics about Howard: Dean and His Democratic Detractors	220	(4)
Selling Out Democracy: Kerry's China Connection	224	(3)
Dude! Where's Your Politics? Michael Moore Smears Kucinich	227	(2)
Beware the Iraq Election Blowback: Rigged Votes and Puppet Governments	229	(3)
Presidential Occupations: Bush and Kerry Share a Problem	232	(3)
Where is John Kerry? A Campaign Coasting Toward Disaster	235	(2)
Other Indignities, Assaults and Affronts
Will Rendell Act? Race and the Death Penalty in Pennsylvania	237	(3)
There He Goes Again! Michael Moore Proclaims Mumia Guilty	240	(3)
Not My Day in Court: How the System Rigs the Jury Pool	243	(2)
Bush's Scare Tactics May Backfire: The Coming Senior Revolution	245	(5)
Social Insecurity: Fear Mongering for Privatization	250	(3)
Hypocrisy at the Fed: Greenspan's Pension	253	(2)
Marketplace Medicine: America's Healthcare Scandal	255	(3)
Lights Out Baby: Where's Arnold when We Need Him?	258	(2)
The Great Oil Gouge: Burning Up That Tax Rebate	260	(3)
Beef, the Meat of Republicans: Deregulating Themselves to Extinction?	263	(3)
Memorializing a President Who Could Really Lie: Put Reagan on the $3 Bill	266	(2)
Saigon Revisited: Bush's Evacuation Moment?	268	(3)
Epilogue
Making Breakfast Safe Again	271	(1)
Appendix
Great Websites for Alternative News and Information	272	(1)
Notes	273	(1)
About the Author	274